Anti-Semitism in Europe.

The world accessible to German Jews narrowed. Jews were no longer allowed to enter cinemas, theatre, swimming pools and resorts. It was common for towns and villages to put up notices on their approach roads 'Jews not wanted here'. Holiday resorts advertised themselves as 'free of Jewish taint', and by 1935 local authorities were banning Jews from public parks and playing fields: it was not unusual to see outside a local swimming pool the notice 'Bathing prohibited to Dogs and Jews'. Furthermore they were banned from living, or sometimes even walking, in certain parts of Germany. All were precautions made to ensure that the Jews were segregated from the German people so they were unable to corrupt the 'Aryan' race. In March 1936 Jews were denied the right to participate in German elections and no German Jewish athletes were allowed to compete in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. This all portrayed to German citizens that the Jews were sub-human. Jews were also forced to carry identification cards and to wear the Star of David badges. Jews were now required to adopt specifically Jewish forenames- such as 'Israel' or 'Sarah'-. Anti-Jewish propaganda streamed from the officially controlled media; and ordinary people began to take their cue from party statements, refusing to serve in Jews in shops or hotels and discriminating against them in employment and housing. Jews were often publicly humiliated in the streets, often being forced to scrub pavements whilst onlookers jeered. Many Jews emigrated, leaving for countries where religion was not an issue.

Numerous laws were passed between 1937 and 1939, which restricted Jewish economic activities and all Jewish wealth and property had to be registered. Actions against Jewish businesses and properties escalated from boycotts to seizures to destruction of stores and synagogues. In November 1938 a young Jew assassinated a German diplomat. This provided GÖbbels with an excuse to launch a pogrom against the German Jews. This pogrom was called Kristallnacht 'the night of the broken glass'. Kristallnacht was carefully planned anti-Semitic violence that erupted throughout the Reich, although the Nazis described the events as a 'spontaneous outburst'. Rioters roamed through Jewish villages burning synagogues ransacking and breaking windows of Jewish businesses and homes. Over a thousand synagogues were damaged and many businesses were destroyed. Twenty-six thousand Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Jews were physically attacked and beaten, ninety-one died. Police stood by as the violence occurred and firemen were present to ensure that the flames from the synagogues did not spread to 'Aryan' property. In its aftermath Jews lost the illusion that they had a future in Germany. After a meeting to discuss the damage, the Nazis chose to further persecute the Jews by forcing them to pay for the damages of Kristallnacht. GÖring concluded the meeting with a note of irony: 'I would not like to be a Jew in Germany'. Within days, the Nazis forced the Jews to transfer their businesses and property to Aryan hands. Jews were forced out of skilled work and in April 1939 all their remaining wealth was confiscated.

The three thousand Jews left in the German Reich were now trapped. The confiscation of their wealth had left them unable to buy or bribe their way out of Germany, and no other country was willing to accept huge numbers of poverty-stricken refugees. Hitler began publicly to threaten that war in Europe would mean the 'annihilation of the Jewish race'. German Jews found themselves in complete destitution with nowhere to turn.

The German Jews were restricted in education. From April 7 1933 'non-Aryan' teachers were not allowed to teach. Jewish children at school were humiliated in front of their classes, and school textbooks were rewritten to show Jews as polluters of the Aryan race. In 1938 all Jewish children were expelled from state schools. The Nazis also encouraged book burnings of writings by Jews and others not approved of in the Reich. Jews were barred from earning university degrees.

During the period 1933 - 1939 there was a systematic removal of rights from Jews in Germany. They were stripped of their civil rights as German citizens and isolated them from Germans legally, socially and politically. Jews were reduced to subjects of the state. The Jewish people's image also deteriorated during this time, because of the constant attack from Nazi propaganda. The Jews went form a thriving and respected race to an unwanted and hated minority in a country that was about to go to war.